1Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
2Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
3Institute Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
4Department of Preclinical, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
*For correspondence: Tel: 603–8946 6899, Fax: 603–8943 2954; E-mail: tcloh@agri.upm.edu.my
The objectives of this experiment were to study the effect of metabolites produced from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the growth performance, Enterobacteriaceae and LAB counts in the faeces, faecal pH and plasma cholesterol. A total of 30 female postweaning rats were randomly assigned to five groups of diet: basal diet + 100% drinking water (DW), basal diet + 90% DW + 10% UL4 metabolite, basal diet + 80% DW + 20% UL4 metabolite, basal diet + 90% DW+ 10% RW18 metabolite and basal diet + 80% DW + 20% RW18 metabolite for a period of four weeks. The metabolites affected only Enterobacteriaceae counts and faecal pH, which were lower than the control groups. In conclusion, addition of lactic acid bacterial metabolites in the drinking water had only antibacterial effect in rats.
Rat, LAB organic acids, LAB, Enterobacteriaceae, total plasma cholesterol concentration
